Tag Archive: laser engraving

Laser Engraving has evolved dramatically over the previous decade or so. When I started working in this business, if you needed to have a laser at your manufacturing facility or shop it’s important to have THREE THINGS: Highly Trained Personnel, Patience and very DEEP pockets.

In the previous 10-years or so, computing power, solid-state lasers and deployment of advanced software has helped to drop the prices considerably, the required skillset to own and operate a system is also quite low and improved reliability means that system maintenance has become significantly simplified.

So, let’s get to the meat of this Article.

Laser MARKING: TIPS and TRICKS

1. First and Foremost, ensure you have the correct Wavelength!

The Wavelength of the laser is critical to laser etching.

ORGANIC MATERIALS:

For example, Let’s say your major business is custom firearms. Most people begin with a simple CO2 laser having a Wavelength of 10,600nM. These are low-value, low-barrier techniques meant for engraving and marking organic materials. Wood, Paper, Glass and Stone to name a few. A CO2 laser is a GREAT selection for engraving and marking the Wood Butt Stocks and Polymer Grips of guns, but isn’t going to do a lot in the way in which of engraving the steel parts of the firearm.

METALS:

In order to successfully mark and engrave with any depth in metals, we need to change the wavelength. Here, the appropriate wavelength for MOST common metals is about 1uM. Why do I say about? Simply put, there’s a number of variations for the 1uM laser, …